


Comfort Zone

by chuwaeyo



Category: Saints Row
Genre: F/F, F/M, Light Angst, Maybe - Freeform, Pining, but she sees her with oleg and ripperoni, the boss just loves this qt hacker girl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-17
Updated: 2017-09-01
Packaged: 2018-12-16 14:01:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11830209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chuwaeyo/pseuds/chuwaeyo
Summary: Who has time for love when there's a city to takeover and revenge to be had?(Eventual Fem Boss / Kinzie)





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, I wasn't going to post this because it started out as a huge list of headcanons between the boss / Kinzie, but I ended up writing about it bc I just,, love them so much...

Old habits are hard to break, the boss proved that, despite all of the superpowers from the simulation, the boss liked to go for drives around the “town”, spending time in the simulation between missions hanging around old hideouts, even though Zinyak had destroyed all traces of them.

It gave them a nostalgia that could never be fulfilled with the earth and their friends gone.

Hours were spent where Saints used to hang around, thinking about all their friends and allies that were lost when Zinyak atomized the Earth. They were helpless to stop it or even say a final goodbye.

When she was first freed from the nightmare simulation, the boss was too mad to think about anything at first, too filled with rage to see past anything other than what they could do in the present for revenge and to kill the alien overlord.

But after freeing the captive homies, after coming across the audiotapes, Kinzie’s audiotapes, god how horrible the guilt felt. There could only be so much a single person could do, and the boss was reckless enough to get the rest of their friends atomized with the rest of the Earth. The boss tried to make sense of it all, like Kinzie, or Shaundi would, rationally, or as close as they could, but the weight of all the lives lost was too much; it was her own fault that the Earth was destroyed so quickly. If she had just listened to Kinzie if she had just calmed down for ONCE. 

Kinzie and Oleg had something special together, something the boss and her could only have in the boss’s dreams, compared to Oleg, the boss was no match. From the moment they first laid eyes on Kinzie, she knew there was something special about the hacker. 

Her snarky remarks or unresponsiveness to the boss’s advances only made Kinzie more fun to tease and spend time with.

Seeing how Kinzie and Oleg acted towards each other made the boss back off with the teasing for a while, a strange jealousy in them. Deep down, from the first moment the boss saw them together, she knew she didn’t have a chance, she was just what everyone thought of her, the sociopathic leader of the Saints.

Of course, they wouldn’t have a chance with the cute hacker.


	2. A Distant Whisper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steelport / SR3 Chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last part will definitely be up by tonight or tomorrow!

Back in Steelport, the boss accepted that there would never be anything between her and Kinzie, but she still felt hurt that she never stood a chance. 

She started getting reckless, increasingly reckless with each mission, and after a gang operation gone bad, the boss sustained injuries so bad, Kinzie had to send out the whole gang to search for and pick up the boss, who laid on the floor of some random warehouse, unable to move.

The boss was tired and disappointed in herself for getting this injured, imagining how pathetic she must look if anyone came to finish off the job, she let her thoughts slip out, “why can’t I just die?” forgetting Kinzie was still on the mic, in case anything happened. 

Her voice surprised the boss, “Don’t say that kinda thing boss! All of the Saints are here for you, well not “here”, here, but we believe in you! You’ll be better and back to causing mayhem in no time!”

Before the boss could reply, she heard Shaundi’s voice and looked over to see her friend hovering over her, “You dickhead! Why didn’t you tell anyone where you were going or bring backup! You knew our location system is acting up!” Shaundi kicked the boss’s leg and pulled them up “you really did it this time didn’t you? You look like you crawled out of hell”.

The boss could only snicker, “thanks, Shaundi, I feel like I-” before blacking out from exhaustion.

“BOSS-”

_____

They were woken by the birds chirping outside and blinding white surroundings, rather than the usual chatter of the Saints hideout, and tried to get out of bed before realizing they were chained down.

“I knew you were going to try and get up before you’re even close to being okay” Kinzie sighed “that’s why I chained you up while you were out cold”.

The boss continued to struggle against the chains, thinking, either Kinzie used her own, extra strength cuffs, or I’m really in no shape to move, “Kinzie, I get that this is your kink and all, but c’mon I got stuff do right now…probably”.

Ignoring the kink comment, Kinzie continued, “No can do boss, your injuries are far worse than anything we’ve seen from you, so you have to stay in bed for at least three weeks”.

“Kinzie, I have a city to take over, a gang to take care of, shenanigans to do” the boss smirked, “besides, I can get someone to break me out”.

“If you even think about escaping before three weeks is through I will personally tie you down and get Oleg to sit on you to make sure you stay in this hospital room. And if you do, I’ll just sell your favorite guns on eBay and make myself some quick cash”.

The sheer thought of some random person holding onto their favorite pistols was enough to make the boss stop fidgeting, “can you at least take off these cuffs? I swear I won’t make a grand escape”.

Kinzie stared down the boss before she relented and took off all of the cuffs, without knowing that that was just step one of her escape plans.

Like the boss promised, she didn’t try to make a grand escape. After waiting a whole week stuck in a hospital bed, she decided it was time to make her move. The hospital staff knew the boss well enough to let her walk around wherever she wanted, as long as she wasn’t in the way of an emergency.

After grabbing her belongings from the staff and hiding her face to prevent any Saints from following her, she walked out of the hospital and jacked the first car that crossed her, driving to one of her private condos, far from the Saint headquarters to take some time for herself and recover.

Confident that the boss accepted their hospital bed rest, Kinzie said they didn’t have to keep checking in at the hospital, but thought it would be better if she had one last visit to remind the boss who was in charge for the moment. 

The moment she walked up the front desk, she knew something was off, but didn’t think much of it until the elderly lady working told her that the boss took off on her own without saying anything other than a “have a wonderful day”.

Kinzie quickly called all of the homies and told them to search for the boss, not believing that she could’ve been walking on her own so quickly or leaving without even saying anything to the Saints.

From their time in Stillwater, Pierce and Shaundi knew that the boss liked to go awol and volunteer at animal shelters when they were overwhelmed or depressed, they were frequent visitors after Carlos died to pick up the boss, and were both surprised that it wasn’t the first thing the boss did in Steelport (it was the third). 

To keep Kinzie from hacking the whole state, Pierce and Shaundi explained to her that the boss often helps out at the animal shelters to keep her “good”.

Within a few hours, Pierce finds the boss at the shelter that’s farthest from all of their headquarters and convinces her to at least come back to the Saints to recover, so no one worries themselves to death. 

After reluctantly agreeing, they head back to Shaundi’s loft so the boss could be left to themselves, with the exception of Pierce and Shaundi, to recover fully. Per the boss’s instructions, the Saints were to lay low and keep things cool while she recovered, making the remaining gangs and public uneasy at how quiet the Saints were for once, not being the talk of the news for their mischief, but because of their lack of activity. 

Somehow, the two weeks passed quietly and once the boss cleared their final checkup and immediately jumped back into causing mayhem and nonsense across the city for the other gangs. While Shaundi and Pierce both thought the boss taking the full two weeks to recover was weird, Kinzie paid it no mind and let out a sigh of relief as she saw a blur of the boss on the news for driving a tank into Three-Count, feeling she was worried over nothing.

Kinzie may be the genius of the Saints for all things tech-related, but when it came to the boss, she was in the dark. Despite acting like everything was okay, the boss felt horrible for letting Kinzie overhear her thoughts on the mic, deciding, after two weeks of thinking, that it would be best if she repressed her feelings for Kinzie, or feelings of any other kind, and focused all her energy into making Gat proud and getting revenge.

_____

During their final act in taking over Steelport in the “Three Way” mission, the boss overhears Oleg say “were Kinzie here, I’d pour out my heart” and feels their own heart break into more pieces, quickly pushing aside their own pain to focus on saving the Saints and killing Kia, so the two could have a chance of being happy together.

Unsurprisingly, the boss succeeds at saving Shaundi, Viola, and Reynolds, killing Kia, though she was forced to let Killbane get away to save their friends. 

Though they were thanked as heroes and ended the STAG occupation of Steelport, the boss felt empty. Even after all the partying and cheers from their friends, the boss just couldn’t feel as happy as she should have, but she smiled and continued to fool around with them all.

With the city completely under their control, the Saints had no need for all the destruction they caused when another gang was in charge of the neighborhoods. They went back to doing their own things, going to the shooting ranges every few days in case something went South. 

Kinzie and Oleg finally got together, when they returned to the Penthouse to after the news conference calling the Saints heroes, Kinzie was the first one in Oleg’s arms, and soon everyone was cheering for them.

After that day, the boss spent most of her time driving around Steelport, visiting different shooting ranges, paintball arenas, animal shelters, and hospitals. Now that there wasn’t an immediate threat in the city, the boss took it upon herself to put an effort into getting over her own feelings for Kinzie. 

She talked to both of them as little as needed, and had a ready list of excuses in case they wanted to spend more time with her.

It didn’t feel fair of her to do this to them, but it just, hurt too much.

At some point, there were a few days where the boss went AWOL again, but before Kinzie or the rest of the gang tore apart the city searching, Viola and Shaundi admitted that the boss was sick and resting at Viola’s home because Viola had adopted three dogs after her sister was killed and the boss was shocked that this was hidden from her.

It was a comfortable distance, far enough to not hear about their constant cooings over each other, close enough to ensure that they were still friends and important members of the gang, but definitely not far enough for the boss to stop aching.


	3. Waking From the Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Good end: getting the girl and feeling genuinely happy? relationship goals tbh

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all liked it! I actually thought I posted this a while back like I promised, but uhhhh, I guess I never clicked post lol
> 
> Until next time!

Many would say that it was a split second decision, to save herself, or to save the world, or, wherever the missile was headed. She knew she had a good run, she and Johnny brought back the Saints, made them something worth talking about again. Pierce was living his dream, Shaundi had her own TV show, Kinzie and Oleg were happy, they were all so happy for once in their lives after the boss had crashed into their lives, deep down the boss already knew there was only one choice.

“If it means saving everyone’s asses one last time, this will be worth it” the boss struggled to climb up the missile and disable it, listening to everyone’s final thoughts to her, thankful that her mic was malfunctioning, not wanting to joke about having vision problems from holding back tears. 

_____

As President of the United States, the boss had many more distractions to keep her from thinking about the feelings she still had trouble getting rid of. It was a whole new set of challenges that distracted her enough to let herself get close to Kinzie and Oleg without feeling hurt by their interactions together. 

Everything was going great until the abductions started, the drop in her stomach mortified her, it was like losing Gat over and over again, she felt helpless as Zinyak subdued her with what seemed like little to no effort, watching the smoke rise from what remained of the Oval Office as she blacked out.

_____

It was a bright and beautiful day in Steelport as the boss jumped out of bed and made her way downstairs to meet her beautiful wife, Shaundi cooking some breakfast for themselves.

The boss stopped for a second and blinked, as nice as it was seeing Shaundi cooking for her and calling her “wife”, it didn’t feel real but disregarded the feeling when Shaundi asked her to grab the newspaper outside before heading out for a ride with the Sheriff.

Being behind the wheel of the Gunslinger made the boss feel uneasy again, the pleasant conversation and cruising speed didn’t feel right, itching to slam on the gas but the car only stopped when they arrived in front of the diner.

“What tHE *BLEEP*?” the boss pushed her way out of the mob and jumped into the car, “Where the *BLEEP* am I? I gotta get outa this *BLEEP* hole”, finally able to slam on the breaks, she sped away from the diner when Kinzie’s voice came through.

“Boss, just head towards the park, and brace yourself!” Kinzie yelled before the car disappeared and the boss was vaulted to the middle of the park, “This place isn’t real, but just be you, I left you a surprise in the fountain, grab it and unleash Hell!”

Even if Kinzie hadn’t told her the last part, the boss would’ve gladly done so anyway, happy to hear Kinzie’s voice in this conforming nightmare. 

Her voice felt like home.

When she finally got on the ship and saw Kinzie with her own two eyes, the boss wanted to grab Kinzie in her arms and spin her around just to see if it was real, but Kinzie already pointed out that she was butt naked, and escaping was their top priority.

_____

Coming across Kinzie’s audio logs in the simulation hurt more than any explosion, gunshot, or collision the boss ever faced in real life and the simulation, she was the reason why Oleg couldn’t be with Kinzie anymore. If she had just listened to Kinzie if she had just calmed down for ONCE, maybe then Oleg and everyone else would still be alive on Earth.

After a long day working the simulation, the boss exited the simulation, much to the nagging of Kinzie and stumbled out of the machine, seconds from hitting the floor when Kinzie caught her. “Boss you okay? You feel like dead weight right now” 

Hearing Kinzie’s last words, the boss put more effort into standing on her own, but failed, “I, just uh, have a bad migraine, it happens whenever I do too much work at once, right about now is when I would slink off to my private home and maybe an animal shelter”, the boss let out a tired laugh before continuing, “Promise me you won’t tell Gat, Pierce, or Shaundi?”

Kinzie led the boss down to her own nook of the ship and moved her laptop out of the way to lay the boss down, “I mean, I promise? Boss you usually have no filter what’s up with you hiding this?”

The boss sighed, “those three like to kick my ass when they hear I overworked myself, it’s their weird punishment they do instead of letting me rest”.

Rather than leaving the boss to rest to return to work on the simulation, Kinzie plopped down and made herself comfortable next to the boss, sitting quietly with her eyes closed.

The boss decided to take the chance and ask Kinzie for sex, not thinking she’d agree so quickly to her whims. While the boss wouldn’t give up the experience for anything in the world, she convinced herself that she was just a replacement for Oleg, while she might not be as big as he was, her body was probably sturdy enough for whatever Kinzie was into.

She would never admit it, but her cheek stung where Kinzie hit her before they had sex for a few hours. No matter how many times it happened she let Kinzie hit her, the boss saw it as her punishment for separating Oleg and Kinzie, for failing to save the Earth. 

_____

The moment Zinyak took Kinzie, the boss was on a warpath, she would stop at nothing to make sure Kinzie was safe with them on the ship again. Even Gat had no power in calming down the boss while they were tracking down Kinzie. 

Even though Kinzie had warned her, not to say anything about what the boss saw, something in her took it as a challenge and mumbled, “Just saying, it was a cute poodle skirt…”

In seconds the boss was on the ground clutching her cheek laughing, “I’m glad you’re back Kinzie”. Everyone was shocked, of all the people to land a punch on the boss, and it’s Kinzie? Johnny snickered to himself as he realized that his best friend really was head over heels for the hacker, while both Pierce and Shaundi were too shocked with the rest of the crew to make the connection.

“I don’t get why you’re all so shocked, the boss is actually pretty slow” Kinzie rolled her eyes before running down to her little nook of the ship.

By this point, everyone knew that the boss has a thing for Kinzie, it was almost too obvious, it was a wonder in itself how Mat and Kinzie still don’t realize it. The open teasing and flirting, the public punch to the face after saving Kinzie, they felt sorry for how dense the two geniuses could be and acted more supportive to the boss, who would hopefully do something honest with their feelings.

_____

After defeating Zinyak, all the boss wanted to do was bring back Oleg and the rest of the Saints, but Shaundi, Pierce, and Johnny had to pull her aside and talk sense into her. 

When they returned to the ship, the four of them slipped away into the boss’s private room, where she immediately broke down. “God look at me, I deserve so much pain and suffering, look at all the pain I’ve brought onto all of you, you deserve to be happy”. Each of them felt their hearts break at their friend’s confession, someone who stood tall against all odds, now seemed so fragile. 

Letting the boss tire herself out, they held onto her in a caring embrace until she fell asleep, and tucked her into bed before heading towards the pool table to talk.

Kinzie noticed the four of them missing and wandered around the ship until she found the open door to the boss’s room, which is usually shut tight and locked, and with Shaundi, Pierce, and Gat quietly leaving the room, so she decided to slip in.

Taking in the boss's room, Kinzie never realized that the boss had saved so many things from all their times in the Saints, random souvenirs and goofy pictures covering the walls and the small desk by the door. She made her way towards the bed when she noticed the body carefully tucked in, squeezing the boss’s hand before whispering, “I wish you’d let me in”.

Half asleep, and exhausted from crying the boss whimpered, “How is it that you’re always in my dreams?” the boss paused before cracking a weak smile “guess it’s cause you’ll never really be mine”.

Shocked at the partial confession, Kinzie fit all the pieces into her head and held onto her hand until she fell back asleep after mumbling something about Pierce finding out that real tiger sharks actually look like tigers in the Bermuda Triangle. After watching the boss sleep for a few more minutes, Kinzie closed the door and made her way to her laptop to think about what she just heard.

_____

She didn’t realize it was the next day until the boss plopped down beside her and shoved a lukewarm waffle into her mouth, “Geez Kinzie, you were so focused on your laptop that you didn’t even notice Pierce and I spinning on Cid right in front of you”.

Kinzie looked over to see the boss smiling at her, and felt her face heating up from embarrassment. Before she could say anything that would sound suspicious, she ran away and grabbed Asha and Shaundi, piling into the bathroom, screaming about a “much-needed girls talk”.

The boss looked over at Johnny and Pierce after looking down her own shirt, “I guess I’m not invited to girls talk? Did I do something wrong??”

But the two could only screech and laugh at their friend’s denseness, watching as their friend continued to freak out.

_____

The moment Kinzie closed the door behind her she began pacing and freaking out in front of the other two women, “what do I DO? I just saw the boss’s smile and I feel so embarrassed oh mY-”

“Kinzie calm down, speak slower it’s just us girls- I mean, most of the girls” Shaundi grabbed Kinzie’s shoulders to stop her from pacing while Asha snickered, “what is up with you?”

“I think I’m in love with the boss…” Kinzie felt weird saying it out loud, “I mean, I was thinking about it all night, and when I saw them this morning I just exploded, what do I DO?”

This time it was Asha that spoke up, “I think you should take it slow, the boss is pretty dense when it comes to things like this, it’ll all work out in the end”.

Shaundi nodded in agreement, “Kinzie, we’re all here to support you if the boss ever goes too far just know that we’ll gang up on them for you”.

“You know, they told me that’s what you guys do whenever they overwork themselves, it’s a little messed up” Kinzie felt a lot calmer after their short conversation.

“To be fair, it’s revenge for all the times they got everyone to gang up on us” Shaundi crossed her arms “those birthday dog piles were the worst thing that the Saints have done”.

_____

After Kinzie’s revelation, the ship was relatively calm, other than the usual nonsense of the Saints, playing around with their souvenirs from history, or finding new habitable planets for the rest of the Zin’s hostages.

In between goofing around in the past on Earth and surveying new planets, the boss found comfort in the simulation, driving around the virtual Steelport, thinking about the past and how the Saints are now paving the future for humanity. 

Things really would never be the same. Her thoughts wandered as she drove around the virtual city, she was thankful for everyone supporting her, though she wished she could’ve brought everyone back, they would have so much fun in space together…

The boss pulled off to the side of the road and decided to super sprint up the highest building in the simulation for some air, and feeling the breeze against her face reminded her of the times back in Steelport where she had to run away after destroying her ride. At the top of the building, the boss laid down and closed her eyes, thinking about Kinzie, and if either of them would ever have the guts to say it. 

“Kinzie Kensington, I love you more than anything in this universe”, she sighed, forgetting that she didn’t turn off her mic and Kinzie was the one monitoring her.

“Boss WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?” Kinzie’s voice screaming through the mic pulled her back into reality.

“I uh what? I don’t know what you’re talking about” the boss shot up and began to freak out.

“You better leave the simulation right now or I will give away your Genkibowl trophy”.

_____

The moment she stepped out of the machine, Kinzie’s arms were wrapped around her, “If you said what I think you did, please say it again”. Hearing Kinzie whisper this while holding her so close made her heart tremble, she was so hopelessly in love with her.

“Kinzie Kensington, from the very first moment we picked you up from that boat with the Deckers, and until forever ends, I am so in love with you”, the boss returned the embrace and smiled into Kinzie's jacket. Nothing could ever be better than this moment, she was so hopelessly in love and happy, and began showering Kinzie with kisses.

After what felt like forever, the two separated as a whistle, and claps were heard from behind them, the rest of the crew gathered around with smiles on their faces as well.

Johnny was the first one to speak, “Jesus, how long were you two waiting for this to happen”.

“Oh come on Johnny, look at how happy they are now” Shaundi laughed and pushed his shoulder. 

“Wait, you two weren’t dating??” Matt’s head popped up from behind Asha and Pierce, with a confused expression on his face “This whole time??? You two were just…FLIRTING????” 

Everyone was shocked, “wait, you thought they were dating this whole time Matt?” Pierce managed to get out.

“I mean yeah?? The constant flirting whilst in the simulation, the numerous amount of sex those two have had, the whole poodle skirt thing??” Matt shrugged “I thought it was obvious??”

The boss felt content with life, she finally got the girl, her crew saved the human race, and Matt was actually on top of their relationship status the whole time? How could she ask for a better ending? 

She has all she needs on this spaceship. 

The nightmare ended and she woke up to something even better than a dream.


End file.
